Latest / A Passage to India / Ch 3 - A Passage to India

Transcript

Ch 3 - A Passage to India · A Passage to India

• 0:00
  Chapter three, the third act of Cousin Kate was well advanced by the time
• 0:07
  Missus Moore re entered the club. Whendows were barred lest the servants should see
• 0:12
  their memsaibs acting, and the heat was consequently immense. One electric fan revolved
• 0:20
  like a wounded bird, another was out of order. Disinclined to return to
• 0:26
  the audience, she went into the billiard room, where she was greeted by
• 0:31
  I want to see the real India and her appropriate life came back with a
• 0:37
  rush. This was Adela Quested, a queer, cautious girl whom Ronnie had
• 0:43
  commissioned her to bring from England. And Ronnie was her son, also cautious,
• 0:50
  whom misquested would probably, though not certainly, marry, and she herself
• 0:56
  was an elderly lady. I want to see it too, I only wish
• 1:00
  we could. Apparently the Turchins will arrange something for next Tuesday. It'll end
• 1:07
  in an elephant ride. It always does. Look at this evening, Cousin
• 1:11
  Kate. Imagine Cousin Kate, but where have you been off to? Did
• 1:18
  you succeed in catching the moon in the Ganges? The two ladies had happened
• 1:23
  the night before to see the moon's reflection in a distant channel of the stream.
• 1:29
  The water had drawn it out so that it had seemed larger than the
• 1:33
  real moon and brighter, which had pleased them. I went to the mosque,
• 1:38
  but I did not catch the moon. The angle would have altered.
• 1:44
  She rises later, later, and later yawned missus Moore, who was tired
• 1:51
  after her walk. Let me think, we don't see the other side of
• 1:55
  the moon out here. No com is not as bad as all that,
• 2:01
  said a pleasant voice. Either side of the earth if you like. But
• 2:06
  we stick to the same old moon. Neither of them knew the speaker,
• 2:12
  nor did they ever see him again. He passed with his friendly word through
• 2:16
  red brick pillars into the darkness. We aren't even seeing the other side of
• 2:22
  the world. That's our complaint, said Adela. This is more agreed.
• 2:28
  She too was disappointed at the dullness of their new life. They had made
• 2:32
  such a romantic voyage across the Mediterranean and through the sands of Egypt to the
• 2:38
  harbor of Bombay to find only a gridiron of bungalows at the end of it.
• 2:45
  But she did not take the disappointment as seriously, as misquested, for
• 2:51
  the reason that she was forty years older and had learnt that life never gives
• 2:55
  us what we want at the moment that we can appropriate. Adventures do occur,
• 3:02
  but not punctually. She said again that she hoped that something interesting would
• 3:08
  be arranged for next Tuesday. Have a drink, said another pleasant voice,
• 3:15
  missus Moore misquested, have a drink, have two drinks. They knew who
• 3:22
  it was, this time, the collector, mister Turton, with whom they
• 3:25
  had dined like themselves. He had found the atmosphere of cousin Kate too hot.
• 3:32
  Ronnie, he told them, was stage managing in place of major calendar,
• 3:38
  whom some native subordinate or other had let down, and doing it very
• 3:42
  well. Then he turned to Ronnie's other merits and, in quiet, decisive
• 3:49
  tones, said much that was flattering. It wasn't that the young man was
• 3:53
  particularly good at the games or the lingo, or that he had much notion
• 4:00
  of the law, but apparently a large butt. Ronnie was dignified. Missus
• 4:08
  Moore was surprised to learn this dignity, not being a quality with which any
• 4:14
  mother credits her son, misquestt learned it with anxiety, for she had not
• 4:20
  decided whether she liked dignified men. She tried, indeed, to discuss this
• 4:27
  point with mister Turton, but he silenced her with a good humored motion of
• 4:31
  his hand and continued what he had come to say. The long and the
• 4:36
  short of it is, he slops a saib. He's the type we want.
• 4:42
  He's one of us. And another civilian, who was leaning over the
• 4:46
  billiard table, said here here. The matter was thus placed beyond doubt,
• 4:54
  and the collector passed on for other duties, called him. Meanwhile, the
• 5:00
  performance ended and the amateur orchestra played the national anthem Conversation, and billiards stopped,
• 5:08
  faces stiffened. It was the anthem of the Army of occupation. It
• 5:14
  reminded every member of the club that he or she was British and in exile.
• 5:20
  It produced a little sentiment and a useful accession of willpower. The meager
• 5:27
  tune, the curt series of demands on Jehovah fused into a prayer unknown in
• 5:33
  England, and though they perceived neither royalty nor deity, they did perceive something.
• 5:42
  They were strengthened to resist another day, and they poured out offering one
• 5:47
  another drinks, Adela, have another drink? Mother a drink? They refused,
• 5:56
  they were weary of drinks and misquested, who always said exactly what was
• 6:00
  in her mind? Announced anew that she was desirous of seeing the real India.
• 6:08
  Ronnie was in high spirits. The request struck him as comic, and
• 6:13
  he called out to another passer by fielding, how's one to see the real
• 6:17
  India? Try seeing Indians? The man answered and vanished, who was that?
• 6:27
  Our schoolmaster? Government College? As if one could avoid seeing them,
• 6:32
  sighed missus Leslie, I've avoided, said miss quested, excepting my own servant.
• 6:40
  I've scarcely spoken to an Indian since landing. Oh, lucky you,
• 6:46
  But I want to see them. She became the center of an amused group
• 6:50
  of ladies. One said, wanting to see Indians, thou knew that sounds
• 6:58
  Another naged, I fancy. A third, more serious, said, let
• 7:04
  me explain, Natives don't respect one any more after meeting one. You see
• 7:12
  that occurs after so many meetings. But the lady, entirely stupid and friendly,
• 7:18
  continued, What I mean is I was a nurse before my marriage and
• 7:25
  came across them a great deal. So I know, I really do know
• 7:30
  the truths about Indians. A most unsuitable position for any englishwoman. I was
• 7:36
  a nurse in a native state. One's only hope was to hold sternly aloof
• 7:43
  even from one's patience. I the kindest thing one can do to a native
• 7:48
  is to let him die, said missus Callender. How if he went to
• 7:55
  heaven, asked Missus Moore, with a gentle but crooked smile. He can
• 8:00
  go where he likes, as long as he doesn't come near me. They
• 8:03
  give me the creeps. As a matter of fact, I have thought what
• 8:09
  you were saying about heaven, and that is why I am against missionaries,
• 8:15
  said the lady, who had been a nurse. I am all four chaplains,
• 8:20
  but all against missionaries. Let me explain. But before she could do
• 8:26
  so, the collector intervened, do you really want to meet the arian?
• 8:31
  Brother? Misquested, that can be easily fixed up. I didn't realize he'd
• 8:35
  amuse you, he thought a moment. You can practically see any type you
• 8:41
  like. Take your choice. I know the government people and the landowners.
• 8:48
  He slop here can get hold of the barrister crew. While if you want
• 8:52
  to specialize on education. We can come down on fielding. I'm tired of
• 8:58
  seeing picturesque figure passed before me as a freeze. The girl explained, it
• 9:03
  was wonderful when we landed, but that superficial glamor soon goes. Her impressions
• 9:09
  were of no interest to the collector. He was only concerned to give her
• 9:15
  a good time. Would she like a bridge party? He explained to her.
• 9:20
  What that was? Not the game, but a party to bridge the
• 9:24
  gulf between East and west. The expression was his own invention and amused all
• 9:31
  who heard it. I only want those Indians whom you come across socially as
• 9:37
  your friends. Well, we don't come across them socially, he said,
• 9:43
  laughing. They are full of all the virtues, but we don't. And
• 9:48
  now it's eleven thirty and too late to go into the reasons. Misquested what
• 9:54
  a name? Remarked Missus Turton to her husband as they drove away. She
• 10:00
  had not taken to the new young lady, Thinking her ungracious and cranky,
• 10:05
  She trusted that she hadn't been brought out to marry nice little Heathlock. No,
• 10:11
  it looked like it. Her husband agreed with her. In his heart,
• 10:16
  but he never spoke against an englishwoman if he could avoid doing so,
• 10:20
  and he only said that Misquested naturally made mistakes. He added, India does
• 10:26
  wonders for the judgment, especially during the hot weather. It has even done
• 10:33
  wonders for Fielding. Missus Turton closed her eyes at this name and remarked that
• 10:39
  mister Fielding wasn't Pucca and had better marry Misquested, for she wasn't Pucca.
• 10:46
  Then they reached their bungalow, low and enormous, the oldest and most uncomfortable
• 10:54
  bungalow in the civil station, with a sunk soup plate of a lawn,
• 11:00
  and they had one more drink, this time of barley water, and went
• 11:03
  to bed. Their withdrawal from the club had broken up the evening, which,
• 11:09
  like all gatherings, had an official tinge. A community that bows the
• 11:16
  knee to a viceroy and believes that the divinity that hedges a king can be
• 11:22
  transplanted must feel some reverence for any vice regal substitute at Chandrapur, the Turtons
• 11:30
  or little gods. Soon they would retire to some suburban villa and die exiled
• 11:37
  from glory. It's decent of the Burah Saib chattered Ranee, much gratified at
• 11:43
  the civility that had been shown to his guests. Do you know he's never
• 11:48
  given a bridge party before coming on top of the dinner too. I wish
• 11:54
  I could have arranged something myself, but when you know the natives better,
• 11:58
  you'll realize it's easier for the Burra Sahib than for me. They know him,
• 12:05
  they know he can't be fooled. I'm still fresh comparatively. No one
• 12:11
  can even begin to think of knowing this country until he's been in it twenty
• 12:15
  years. Hollo the Mater, here's your cloak. Well for an example of
• 12:20
  the mistakes one makes. Soon after I came out, I asked one of
• 12:26
  the pleaders to have a smoke with me, only a cigarette, mind.
• 12:31
  I found afterwards that he had sent touts all over the bazaar to announce the
• 12:35
  fact. Told all the litigants, oh, you'd better come to my Vakhill
• 12:41
  mahmoud Ali. He's in with the city magistrate. Ever since then, I've
• 12:48
  dropped on him in court as hard as I could. It's thought me a
• 12:52
  lesson, and I hope him isn't the lesson that you should invite all the
• 12:58
  pleaders to have a smoke with you, perhaps, but times limited and the
• 13:03
  flesh weak. I prefer my smoke at the club, amongst my own sort.
• 13:07
  I'm afraid whynot ask the pleaders to the club? Misquested, persisted not
• 13:15
  aloud. He was pleasant and patient, and evidently understood why she did not
• 13:22
  understand. He implied that he had once been as she, though not for
• 13:28
  long. Going to the verandah, he called firmly to the moon. His
• 13:33
  sayis answered, and without lowering his head, he ordered his trap to be
• 13:37
  brought round. Missus Moore, whom the club had stupefied, woke up outside.
• 13:45
  She watched the moon, whose radiance stained with primrose, the purple of
• 13:48
  the surrounding sky. In England, the moon had seemed dead and alien.
• 13:56
  Here she was caught in the shawl of night, together with Earth and all
• 14:01
  the other stars. A sudden sense of unity, of kinship with the heavenly
• 14:07
  bodies passed into the old woman and out like water through a tank, leaving
• 14:13
  a strange freshness behind. She did not dislike cousin Kate or the national anthem,
• 14:20
  but their note had died into a new one, just as cocktails and
• 14:24
  cigars had died into invisible flowers. When the mosque, long and domeless,
• 14:33
  gleamed at the turn of the road, she exclaimed, Oh, yes,
• 14:37
  that's where I got to. That's where i've been. I've been there,
• 14:43
  when asked her son between the acts. But mother, you can't do that
• 14:48
  sort of thing, can't mother? She replied, No, really, not
• 14:54
  in this country. It's not done. There's the danger from snakes, for
• 14:58
  one thing. They are apt to lie out in the evening. Ah.
• 15:03
  Yes, so the young man there said. This sounds romantic, said miss
• 15:09
  quested, who was exceedingly fond of missus Moore, and was glad she should
• 15:13
  have had this little escapade. You meet a young man in a mosque and
• 15:18
  then never let me know. I was going to tell you, Adela,
• 15:24
  but something changed the conversation and I forgot. My memory grows deplorable. Was
• 15:31
  he nice? She paused, then said emphatically, very nice? Who was
• 15:39
  he? Ronnie inquired? A doctor? I don't know his name? A
• 15:43
  doctor I know of, no young doctor in chandrapor how odd? And what
• 15:50
  was he like? Rather small with a little mustache and quick eyes. He
• 15:56
  called out to me when I was in the dark part of them. About
• 16:00
  my shoes. That was how we began talking. He was afraid I had
• 16:04
  them on, but I remembered. Luckily. He told me about his children,
• 16:10
  and then we walked back to the club. He knows you well.
• 16:14
  I wish you had pointed him out to me. I can't make out who
• 16:18
  he is. He didn't come into the club, he said he wasn't allowed
• 16:22
  to. Thereupon the truth struck him, and he cried, oh, good
• 16:26
  gracious, not a Mohammedan. Why ever didn't you tell me you'd been talking
• 16:32
  to a native. I was going all wrong, ah Mohammedan, How perfectly
• 16:37
  magnificent, exclaimed Miss quested Ronnie, isn't that like your mother? While we
• 16:44
  talk about seeing the real India? She goes and sees it and then forgets
• 16:48
  she's seen it. But Ronnie was ruffled from his mother's description. He had
• 16:55
  thought the doctor might be young Muggins from over the Ganges, and had brought
• 17:00
  out all the comradeley emotions want to mix up. Why hadn't she indicated by
• 17:06
  the tone of her voice that she was talking about an Indian scratchy and dictatorial.
• 17:12
  He began to question her. He called to you in the mosque.
• 17:17
  Did he how impudently? What was he doing there himself at that time of
• 17:22
  night? Now it's not their prayer time. This in answer to a suggestion
• 17:29
  of misquestions. Who showed the keenest interest. So he called to you over
• 17:33
  your shoes, and it was impudence. It's an old trick. I wish
• 17:40
  you had had them on. I think it was impudence. But I don't
• 17:45
  know about a trick, said missus Moore. His nerves were all on edge.
• 17:51
  I could tell from his voice. As soon as I answered, he
• 17:53
  altered. You oughtn't to have answered. Now, look here, said the
• 18:00
  logical girl. Wouldn't you expect a Mohammedan to answer if you asked him to
• 18:06
  take off his hat in church? It's different. It's different if you don't
• 18:11
  understand. I know I don't, and I want to What is the difference?
• 18:17
  Please? He wished she wouldn't interfere. His mother did not signify.
• 18:22
  She was just a globe trotter, a temporary escort who could retire to England
• 18:27
  with what impressions she chose. But Adela, who meditated spending her life in
• 18:33
  the country, was a more serious matter. It would be tiresome if she
• 18:38
  started crooked over the native question. Pulling up the mare, he said,
• 18:45
  there's your ganges. Their attention was diverted below them a radiance had suddenly appeared.
• 18:52
  It belonged neither to water nor moonlight, but stood like a luminous sheaf
• 18:59
  upon the fields of darkness. He told them that it was where the new
• 19:03
  sand bank was forming, and that the dark raveled bit at the top was
• 19:08
  the sand, and that the dead bodies floated down that way from benares or
• 19:15
  wood if the crocodiles let them. It's not much of a dead body that
• 19:18
  gets down to chandrapor crocodiles down it too. How terrible, his mother murmured.
• 19:26
  The young people glanced at each other and smiled. It amused them when
• 19:32
  the old lady got these gentle creeps, and harmony was restored between them.
• 19:37
  Consequently, she continued, what a terrible river, what a wonderful river,
• 19:44
  and sighed the radiance was already altering, whether through shifting of the moon or
• 19:49
  of the sand. Soon the bright sheaf would be gone, and a circlet
• 19:55
  itself to alter be burnished upon the streaming void. The women discussed whether they
• 20:02
  would wait for the change or not, while the silence broke into patches of
• 20:07
  unquietness, and the mare shivered on her account. They did not wait,
• 20:12
  but drove on to the city Magistrate's bungalow, where miss Quested went to bed,
• 20:18
  and missus Moore had a short interview with her son. He wanted to
• 20:22
  inquire about the Mohammedan doctor in the mosque. It was his duty to report
• 20:27
  suspicious characters, and conceivably it was some disreputable hakim who had prowled up from
• 20:36
  the bazaar. When she told him that it was some one connected with the
• 20:41
  Minto hospital, he was relieved and said that the fellow's name must be Aziz,
• 20:47
  and that he was quite all right, nothing against him at all.
• 20:52
  Assis, what a charming name. So you and he had a talk,
• 20:57
  did you gather he was well disposed, ignorant of the force of this question?
• 21:03
  She replied, yes, quite after the first moment. I meant generally.
• 21:10
  And did he seem to tolerate us, the brutal conqueror, the sun
• 21:15
  dried bureaucrat, that sort of thing? Oh, yes, I think so,
• 21:21
  except the calendars. He doesn't care for the calendars at all. Oh
• 21:26
  so he told you that, did he? The major will be interested.
• 21:30
  I wonder what was the aim of the remark, Ronnie. You're never going
• 21:36
  to pass it on to Major Calendar. Yes, rather I must in fact,
• 21:41
  But my dear boy, if the Major heard I was disliked by any
• 21:47
  native subordinate of mine, I should expect him to pass it over to me.
• 21:52
  But my dear boy, a private conversation. Nothing's private in India,
• 21:59
  as he's knew that when he spoke out, So don't worry. He had
• 22:03
  some motive and what he said. My personal belief is that the remark wasn't
• 22:07
  true. How not true? He abused a major in order to impress you.
• 22:15
  I don't know what you mean, dear. It's the educated native's latest
• 22:19
  dodge. They used to cringe, but the younger generation believe in a show
• 22:25
  of manly independence. They think it will pay better with the itinerant MP.
• 22:30
  But whether the native swaggers or cringes, there's always something behind every remark he
• 22:37
  makes, always something, and if nothing else, he's trying to increase his
• 22:42
  yuzat in plain Anglo saxon to score. Of course, there are exceptions.
• 22:48
  You who never used to judge people like this at home. India isn't home.
• 22:55
  He retorted rather rudely, but in order to silence her. He had
• 23:00
  been using phrases and arguments that he had picked up from older officials, and
• 23:04
  he did not feel quite sure of himself when he said, of course there
• 23:11
  are exceptions. He was quoting mister Turton while increasing the zat was Major Calendar's
• 23:18
  own. The phrases worked and were in current use at the club. But
• 23:23
  she was rather clever at detecting the first from the second hand, and might
• 23:29
  press him for definite examples. She only said, I can't deny that what
• 23:34
  you say sounds very sensible, but you really must not hand on to Major
• 23:40
  Calendar anything I have told you about doctor Aziz. He felt disloyal to his
• 23:45
  caste, but he promised, adding in return, please don't talk about Aziz
• 23:52
  to Adeloe, not talk about him. Why there you go again, mother,
• 23:59
  I really explain everything. I don't want Adela to be worried. That's
• 24:04
  the fact she'll begin wondering whether we treat the natives properly at all, that
• 24:08
  sort of nonsense. But she came out to be worried. That's exactly why
• 24:15
  she's here. She discussed it all on the boat. He had a long
• 24:18
  talk when we went on shore at d and she knows you in play,
• 24:23
  as she put it, but not in work. And she felt she must
• 24:27
  come and look round before she decided, and before you decided. She's very,
• 24:34
  very fair minded, I know, he said dejectedly. The note of
• 24:41
  anxiety in his voice made her feel that he was still a little boy.
• 24:45
  Must have what he liked. So she promised to do as he wished,
• 24:51
  and they kissed good night. He had not forbidden her to think about Azziz,
• 24:57
  however, and this when she retired to her room in the light of
• 25:03
  her son's comet, she reconsidered the scene at the Boss to see whose impression
• 25:08
  was correct. Yes, it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene.
• 25:15
  The doctor had begune by bullying her, had said Missus Callender was nice,
• 25:22
  and then finding the ground safe had changed. He had alternately whined over his
• 25:29
  grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence,
• 25:36
  had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes it was all true, but
• 25:42
  how false As a summary of the man, the essential life of him had
• 25:48
  been slain. Going to hang up her cloak, she found that the tip
• 25:53
  of the peg was occupied by a small wasp. She had known this was
• 26:00
  or his relatives by day. They were not as English wasps, but had
• 26:06
  long yellow legs which hung down behind when they flew. Perhaps he mistook the
• 26:11
  peg for a branch. No Indian animal has any sense of an interior.
• 26:18
  Bats, rats, birds, insects will as soon nest inside a house as
• 26:25
  out. It is to them a normal growth of the eternal jungle, which
• 26:30
  alternately produces houses, trees, houses, trees. There he clung asleep,
• 26:40
  while the jackals in the plain bade their desires and mingled with the percussion of
• 26:45
  drums. Pretty dear, said missus Moore to the wasp. He did not
• 26:52
  wake, but her voice floated out to swell the nights uneasiness. End of Chapter three